"Soviet Lend Lease M10s" Topic

I remember these being mentioned in a previous thread a little while ago. While searching for some more info on the 52 sent to the Soviets I did find this.

"The only known photo of a Russian M10 in action in 1944,
belonging to the 1223rd Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment, 29th Tank Corps, 5th Guards Tank Army, 3rd Belorussian Front."
o5m6.de/m10_wolverine.html

"AFV News Volume 45, Number 1 (January – April 2010) featured an article by Karl Brandel on the M10 tank destroyer in Soviet service, an excerpt from his upcoming book 'Under a Different Star' covering U.S., British, and Canadian Lend-Lease armor in service with the Red Army 1941-45. The article contains material originally written in 1982 by Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Ivanovich Finyutin, who served with the 1239th Separate Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment, one of only 2 regiments equipped with Lend Lease M10's. Some of the article deals with his unit's actions during the fighting for Sukhachyov.

Only 52 M10 went to the USSR. By comparison, the British received 1,648 and the Free French got 443. The Soviet M10's were all the original diesel-powered version.

The AFV News article includes a rather small photo of a German soldier inspecting an abandoned M10. According to Brandel, the original German photo caption merely stated that it had been taken 'in the east'. Brandel feels the photo was mostly likely taken in Poland during 1944.

In the article Finyutin speaks glowingly of the M10's firepower, excellent optics, and easy turret traverse. He does complain about the open-topped turret and compares the M10's mobility and armor unfavorably with the T-34, although it was certainly no worse than the SU-76. He also praises the usefulness of the .50-cal heavy machinegun, which he specifically mentions as being mounted atop the turret counterweights. OTOH, he does mistakenly credit the M10 with an 85mm gun…

By the time that Finyutin got his medal, the 1239th SP Regiment had become the 387th Guards SP Regiment. Finyutin was a driver of one the the M10's in his unit. The vehicle commander was Lt. Nikolay Krasnoc, gunner Volodya Petrov, loader Mikhail Stolyarov, and radio operator was Sasha Belov.

It appears the Finyutin and his fellows became Heroes of the Soviet Union following an action in which they engaged and knocked out a column of 6 Panthers in dense fog. They did so by simply tacking themselves onto the tail end of the column and pretending to be just another Panther until the German tanks began to turn and swing off the road to deploy, at which point Sgt. Petrov was allowed to commence firing, hitting all 6 in the side armor in rapid succession in the ensuing utter confusion and chaos. "

link

And the FoW page on them,
link

Robert

You amaze me once again. In 40ish years of interest in WW2 I have never before come across any mention of M10's in Soviet service.

Thanks Mike . I do find the darndest stuff. I am always looking for information and photos. Robert

Very very nicely done Robert!

You'd imagine thaat with only 52 of them the Soviets would have used them for trials etc, but no, to the front! Urrah!

Typical that a Soviet "regiment" has only 25 tanks.

"You'd imagine thaat with only 52 of them the Soviets would have used them for trials etc, but no, to the front! Urrah!"

Maybe that was the way they conducted trials with them. You know. "On the job" lol. Robert

"Typical that a Soviet "regiment" has only 25 tanks."

IIRC a Light Self Propelled Artillery Regiment actually had 21 tubes including the commanders vehicle. These were usually equipped with Su 76s although on the earlier establishment were a mix of Su-76s and SU-122s.

Not unheard of among artillery units of course, British field artillery regiments had 24 guns.

SP Light Artillery Brigades had 60+ vehicles though.

Great find! Many thanks!

My Pleasure Marc33594. Can you imagine if one of those bolts got hit???. Robert

Looks like the photo disappeared. Use the link to view it. Robert

"There is one privet photo, published in internet some time ago, of destroyed Soviet M10 in Poland. It interesting as it shows that is so called late vehicle:"

link

Robert;

I may be mistaken and if so am sure someone will point it out but I believe the bolts were welded on to the surface and didnt extend into the interior. They were originally put on the M-10 in expectation of add on armor to be affixed by the bolts. When that plan was shelved later models of the M-10 did away with the bolts.

Meanwhile I do have a few extra unused M-10s……….

Once again many thanks my friend!

Once again my pleasure Marc33594 . You are right about the hull bosses. I had forgotten about that. I wonder if the bolt still went through the turret wall though. Robert

According to Zaloga's M10 and M36 Tank Destroyers 1942-53 There were only 10 left by the end of the war. Robert

link

So it looks like the Soviets lost 44 M10s between the middle of 1943 till the end of the war. Robert